The Devil’s Muse

Month: March 2018

“Aside from the normal heightened feminine energy of a full moon, a blue moon can represent second chances, reminding us to embrace them while we have them. After all, rarely in life do we get a second go at an important opportunity. This is also a highly magickal time where our connection to the Divine is strengthen as we bear witness to an infrequent celestial event. Now is a moment to connect with spiritual energies (our own and others), embrace heightened intuition, and (of course!) practice magick.” – from The Magick of a Blue Moon

My favourite character in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was the White Witch right from the start. I first read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a pre-teen, and I remember trudging through the first few chapters, until I got to the ice queen. Once she was introduced, I couldn’t read faster, and I remember reading through it quicker than I had read any other books at that time. This experience of loving a book because of an intriguing, elegant and plot-motivating character definitely taught me that reading books is amazing and unlike anything else!

BookLewis, C.S. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Geoffrey Bles, 1950.

Film
Adamson, Andrew. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, 2005.

One of the reasons why I decided to run a horror fan blog was to encourage myself to be more immersed in the horror genre, especially in horror writing. One of my favourite activities is to write horror stories, so seeing how other horror writers develop a narrative with scary moments, and where those scary moments appear, interests me.

I admit that I have not read much Stephen King, although he has been a presence in my household my whole life. Both of my parents are fans, so we always had at least one King book in a bed stand or on a shelf. The few King books I read growing up, I liked. But, I was never pulled into the excitement of exploring more into his catalogue.

There is no time like the present. King is a master at horror story-telling, so I only have much to learn from him.

On the recommendation a few months back by Satan’s Niece, who is an avid King reader, I picked up a copy of Gerald’s Game. Going into the novel, I had a basic idea of the plot, which tells the story of a woman’s ordeal after she is handcuffed to her bedpost by her husband during an excursion to their remote cabin, and he dies. I was curious to see how King could write a 400-plus page novel based on this, to me, slim premise.

Again, King is a master. As he tells the story of the main character hung up by her arms and vulnerable—facing thirst, starvation and madness—he tells the story of her psychological vulnerability, weaving in and out of her sexual, social and emotional vulnerabilities throughout her life, particularly in her adolescence.

While I enjoyed many aspects of Gerald’s Game, including the empathetic, first-person female viewpoint and the explicit visuals of body gore, I especially liked that the story was about two things: the personal life of this one person struggling to survive thirst and starvation, and the universal experience of any person having to go through such a horrific ordeal. My favourite section of the book was about two thirds in when the character was preparing to face her second night tied up to the bed. She was victim to the madness of her thirst and starvation and, here, when she was shifting between memories, dreams and reality, King shows us what dying like this would feel like. Of course, the whole time I am thinking, “What if it were me?”

Netflix has recently released a film version of Gerald’s Game. The viewer’s reviews looked positive, and I started watching it, hoping to do a review of both the book and movie. But, as the husband locked the main character to the bedpost, I realized it was “too soon.” I had just closed the book, and I couldn’t bear to relive the horror that I encountered in the book. Give me a few more weeks, at least.

Later this month, Toronto, Canada, is host to a film festival called What the Film Festival that features “contemporary eccentric cinema.” The podcast Read and Distribute interviewed the festival director, Peter Kuplowsky, who talks about indie film-making and the movies that are “so bad they’re good.” He brings up Reanimator, so I know that he is talking to us horror fans. He introduces various directors and their movies, particularly those that will be shown at the festival, and offers insights on what inspires and motivates people to pursue creative passions like these often forgotten, cult projects.